While those they serve were struggling in the midst of the deepest recession for half a century, Andrew Christie, the council's director of children's services, and Nigel Pallace, its head of environment, helped themselves to wage hikes of 16%, taking their salaries to £145,000.

Chief executive Geoff Alltimes took home £205,000, a rise of 10.8%, while the directors of community services and finance, James Reilly and Jane West, were also both paid £145,000, up £10,000.

Building schools for the future programme director Andrew Rennison came in on £105,000.

Campaigners the Taxpayers' Alliance , who released the figures, are outraged. Campaign manager Emma Boon said: "At a time when a lot of people in the borough would have faced pay freezes, pay cuts and even redundancy, these really are massive rises.

"The chief executive is earning more than the Prime Minister. They will say they do a difficult job but I don't buy that it's more difficult than that of the leader of the country.

"The average pay rise for senior council workers in Britain is 5% so you can see someone that is getting nearly 17% is way out of proportion to the norm.

"It is unfair that these public servants have been having a whale of a time while the ordinary taxpayers who fund their generous deals have been struggling to survive the recession. Now that most councils are in financial trouble, these senior managers must take serious pay cuts to help make ends meet."

A spokesman for the council said Mr Alltimes and the directors had frozen their pay for this financial year, and defended last years rises by pointing to the authority's performance.

He said: "This council is winning accolade after accolade. Residents' satisfaction is up to an all time high, we have cut council tax by 3% for the fourth year in a row, the Audit Commission has awarded us the top rating possible for the quality of our services and only last week we were officially named as the best council in Britain at the prestigious LGC Awards.

"These achievements do not happen by chance and are only possible with strong leadership and excellent staff. We employ the best people and to do that we need to pay competitive salaries.

He added: "In a truly innovative move, our chief executive was also put in charge of the local PCT about a year ago meaning taxpayers are getting two jobs done for the price of one."